4-year-old Faris watched the snow fall around him, this had been the 63rd time he visited the Urgal village, this time, like the last three, Angela left him there with the Urgals, promising to pick him up in two weeks.

"Don't worry, Urgals are pretty caste oriented, but as long as you either stay at the bottom of the totem pole or somehow get all the way to the top, they'll leave you alone." Angela winked at him as she said it. Over the course of that week Faris had received 4 scars, two on his stomach, one on his left hand, and an especially nasty one when one of the older Urgal kids tackled him headfirst in the legs. With aid from the Urgal shaman, Naclak, he had been able to heal that last one, but it hurt for the rest of the trip.

The two visits after were uneventful, after the children realized he was so frail that even the toddlers could harm him, they ignored him. He was content with that as it meant not getting gored in the chest, and that was okay. The only one who didn't really ignore him was Hamma's son Gork, Urgal children grew quickly between the ages of 0-8, reaching the physical appearance of a human 8-year-old in less than half the time before aging at a more reduced pace akin to humans. So Gork had gone from a baby to little brother like person toddling after Faris to taller and stronger than him so matter-of-factly Faris had almost developed an inferiority complex over it. When Gork had looked smaller than him he had taken to calling Faris ushnek, which apparently meant big brother, when he shot over Faris however, that term and moniker dropped. Faris had been hurt a bit by this sudden coldness but chose to not let it distract him from everything he was learning.

It had been interesting witnessing Urgal culture, if he had any comparisons that could be made, he could probably make connections to an odd mix in between Spartans, Vikings, Mongols, and a little something extra. They were a very war-oriented race, priding themselves in strength ad prowess above all else, interestingly enough though, for that reason they tended at the same time to not demean those of a lower cast, while a low-ranking warrior would likely not get as many amenities as the higher-ranking ones, there was no preferential treatment in the battlefield. Faris thought to at first chalk it up to ignorance or mindless bloodlust, but he learned quickly that the Urgals took the time to train their men in combat techniques before going out for a raid on another village. Such "raids" were though little more than bloody battle in which the only prize was how many opponents you could defeat. After the war Urgals had been given enough land that they could take to raising livestock, the dwarves had even been "gracious" enough to lend the weakest and runtiest of their Feldûnost to the Urgals, this semi insult backfired, without having to worry about predators of the likes of the Beors or the giant wolves that littered the Beor mountains a hybrid of the normal and Dwarvern variety proved extremely viable for the Urgals. Urgals now seemed content fighting each other, at least for those in the Spines, as it was the domain of Roran, the Urgals out of respect and maybe even a bit of fear avoided catching the ire of the only living mortal man to ever best an Urgal in unarmed combat.

Another interesting thing was their treatment of the infirmed, sometimes Urgals came back with injuries that would leave them crippled, and then there were a few Urgals who were either too old to fight, or were born with deformities, like blindness, deafness, etc. These Urgals weren't ostracized by the main group. He had asked Hamma about it.

"There was a legend of an Urgal named Korga, he was the chieftain of 4 tribes combined into one when he defeated their champions in a 4 on one contest of strength. He was a proud, boastful warrior, but his pride got the better of him, saying that he was so great, he could defeat Svarvok Ushnark. Ahno, the trickster god and Svarvok's son was not pleased with his boasting and told Korga he could face Svarvok if he defeated Kug, his little brother. Kug had been born with a crooked leg and blindness, so Korga laughed proclaiming "If this is the best the gods can display before me! Then I shall be the god of gods!"

Before their duel Ahno gave Kug a blessing, that he could never fall down. Using this blessing Kug tricked Korga into chasing him towards the edge of a ravine, where Korga fell to his death, and Kug, being blessed by Ahno, did not. Most warriors dislike this story, and it isn't our most popular story as Ahno is infamous for ruining the luck of proud Urgal warriors, but it serves to warn us, the crippled but alive are blessed by Ahno, who himself was an outcast, to harm them is akin to insulting Ahno, and misfortune follow those blessed by Ahno.

This was one of Faris' favorite stories, but it wasn't a popular one amongst the Urgal children, who more often enjoyed stories of Urgals triumphing against impossible odds with the same resources, their brawn and guts. For this reason, he had ended up butting heads with the leader of the kids, Zhodar, and that was how he had been injured the first time.

"The only reason you like the story of the blessed of Ahno is because you yourself are a cripple, your hornless coward!"

That had been a direct insult to his pride, and even if they were children, Urgals were expected to take any challenges, he had known if he backed down, things would have been worse, and even then, Angela had given him the sternest talking to he had ever received, and Elva had taken the opportunity to make him feel even more stupid.

"Even if they continued to ridicule you, they would have left you alone, you yourself know now that they'll only make your life tougher because you showed you could fight. More and more of them will challenge you to see where exactly you stand, it's a lose-lose situation you know?" It hadn't been a fun time.

He had at least kept his pride by preventing himself from crying out when he had been gored in the leg, and the shaman had been there quickly to help him, providing the energy while he cast the spell. Even then he had felt extremely drained. Angela had done her best to reduce the scarring to a minimum with herbs, and about one week of therapeutic exercises later had the leg back at full force, or as full force as a 4-year-old could hope to have. The next two visits he had done everything to avoid being alone with the rest of the children, as they tended to not harass him around any of the Urgal dams. That of course changed this time.

As the snow continued to fall around them Faris turned to look at Zhodar, who looked at him with contempt, the kull child was over twice his height, and his horns had grown enough to begin to slightly curl, giving him a devil like appearance, which was very fitting at the moment. Gork lay crumpled, beaten by Zhodar just a bit earlier trying to defend Faris from Zhodar's harassment, and Faris couldn't run away after that. So, he had agreed to challenge Zhodar, but that they had to wait 30 minutes, because

"It wouldn't be fair if you were exhausted after fighting my friend asshole"

Zhodar hadn't been aware of that word, as Faris had switched to English on it and agreed, retorting,

"Fine then hornless, I'll give you time to prepare you self for a beating."

Faris had gone up to Gork, who was being attended to by two of the Urgal children who normally tagged behind him, they looked at Faris with open hostility but let him approach. Gork scowled as he approached.

"Why are you going to fight him? That's stupid! You remember what happened last time."

Faris without skipping a beat asked back, "And why would you help me? You haven't talked to me at all, I know I stay in your home but we haven't been friendly to each other. If I let him get away with beating you like that, I won't be able to sleep okay."

He stood up, casting a spell to lessen the pain for Gork, who widened his eyes, opening his mouth to say something before thinking better of it and closing it.

Faris was woozy even after such a simple spell, thinking of how he had read how Trianna stated she could easily deaden the pain soldiers could feel. He had an extremely low amount of stamina for magic if it a lesser, temporary form of such a simple spell could exhaust him, but that was what the thirty minutes were for, for him to think, and prepare.

"Not scared, are you?"

Faris stared evenly at Zhodar who continued to taunt him as he paced back and forth.

'Keep talking'… Faris thought. 'It will give me time to prepare.'

Faris made sure to keep his eyes on Zhodar, to keep the Kull child from anticipating what he was doing. Zhodar for the most part was being a relatively good sport. Only asking when the thirty minutes were up every few seconds.

"Vaetna, Hurdh, deloi, stenr, flutningr" He whispered this chant to himself, slowly feeling his energy drain, resting every few minutes to slightly recuperate, but not completely each time, he eventually completed two of his traps before Zhodar finally got impatient.

"Argh, human! I have waited ages, if I wait anymore, I'll grow whiskers! Get up now!"

Faris' eyes were sealed shut as he did his best to recuperate as quickly as he could, practicing the breathing exercises from when he was Damien. His parents had wanted him to take an extracurricular along with his studies, until high school senior year his life was so busy either cramming information into his mind or training his body, he had little time for friends, he often was the subject of ostracization and cruelty by other kids, so he had been used to the treatment from the Urgal children. What he hadn't been used to was someone standing up for him, he often had to fight his own battles, and someone trying to help him made him feel… good. It was a feeling he didn't want to lose. Faris got up and faced Zhodar, staring him evenly in the face.

"Alright then, let's get this over with, hornless." He stated with a smile.

The kull youth snarled and charged him, he was faster than Faris had anticipated, but even then, it was for naught, a loud crunch could be heard and Zhodar's triumphant face was replaced with confusion as his foot dropped into a foot-deep hole. This imbalance caused him to teeter forward, right into Faris' fist, which had been cocked back to punch him in the side of the Jaw. Faris felt an explosion of pain to his cheek as he was knocked to the side, Zhodar's reflexes where still better than his, and the giant of a child slowly pulled his foot out of the ground, it looked swollen and bruised, likely falling in a bad angle. As Faris wiped the blood from his cracked lip he saw that the kull's eyes were unfocused. Faris smiled, ignoring the explosion of pain in his mouth. A punch to the jaw was extremely disorienting, even if he couldn't generate the strength in his fist to actually hurt the kull normally, combining it with the speed of Zhodar's fall would help, unfortunately it wasn't hard enough to knock the Kull out, but he was staggering a bit now, the shock of the fall and the punch had both physical and mental affects, and Faris knew he had to take advantage of it. He ran towards Zhodar, who clumsily smacked him in the face, breaking his nose, Faris fought through the pain and kicked out, his foot smacking the boy in his groin. Zhodar collapsed from that, and Faris took the opportunity to scramble behind him and hold him in a chokehold, as he shifted his arms around Zhodar began to flail about, standing up and attempting to pull Faris off of him.

Children are a lot more flexible than adults…

This thought filled Faris' head as he was flipped off Zhodar, who's leg now hurtled towards his face with deadly precision, Faris heard the cracks before the pain set in, and rolled with the momentum of the kick as Zhodar continued forward trying to kick again and again. Eventually Faris managed to get up only to face a second kick form Zhodar, lights flew in his eyes and he could taste the blood in his mouth as he began to back up more and more.

Just a little more,

He thought through the pain as he clutched his face, blood seeping through his fingers slightly. As Zhodar reached forward to punch him Faris simply fell backwards to avoid the blow and Zhodar was on him in an instant, preparing his right hand for an explosive haymaker, his favorite technique to pull on a downed opponent, Faris used that moment to twist his head to the side violently, the fist barely missing him and crashing into the second trap, Zhodar had put so much into his punch that when his hand started going down the rest of his body began giving way, giving Faris enough time to give him a bloody headbutt before squeezing out of him and getting him in a sleeper hold.

10

Zhodar began to flail about scratching and elbowing Faris, who had a pained grimace on his young face.

9

Zhodar attempted to roll, to get his weight on Faris, who wheezed in pain but didn't let up.

8

Zhodar tried grinding left and right, to squeeze out of Faris' grasp, scratching and clawing his arm, causing light cuts.

7

Faris began feeling light headed as a bit more of his blood began to seep out of his face.

6

"Vëoht" Faris whispered to himself as he felt his stamina begin to drain a bit, his bleeding slowed down for the time being, but the combined efforts felt extremely taxing.

5

Zhodar's movements started becoming a bit more sporadic, he tried getting up, but Faris kick at his legs to trip him up every time he seemed to get a bit of balance.

4

Zhodar's movements now start slowing down. Faris is began to feel light headed, his stomach felt sick as well.

3

"Darn it go down already!" Faris screamed in indignation, Zhodar's only response was to cock his head back to hit Faris in the face.

2

Zhodar's struggles finally began to slack off, Faris had finally gotten to him it seemed. Now all he had to do was-

.

.

.

Faris woke up in a bed, covered in bandages, Gork was looking at him worriedly and the shaman seemed to be doing something. His head hurt and his throat was extremely dry. He tried opening his parched lips and a waterskin was presented to him.

"What happened?" He asked Gork.

"Other boy knocked out, you declared winner, taken here to stop bleeding." The Shaman replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh! Hahaha!" Faris immediately regretted laughing as his sides exploded in pain.

"Stay still, rest, your teacher was called to come and return you."

Angela was coming here early? That wasn't good for him, he could hear them now yelling at him over how stupid he was.

"Why wait now?"

He turned his head in dread to see Angela looking equally cross and concerned. Elva wasn't even looking at him, and Solembum merely watched in interest.

"Hi ebrithil," Faris began but was interrupted by Angela flicking him on the nose.

"I told you not to do anything stupid! And look at you! Hell what are we supposed to do now-"

"With all due respect Uluthrek he won."

Angela flicked the kull child's nose, "and don't you interrupt me either young man! I'll have you know that he… he what now?"

Angela looked back at Faris with disbelief, who only shrugged and lay back down, closing his eyes.

The aftermath of that encounter had been the most trouble Faris had gotten into before now, as he returned back to the village with the unconscious Venka.